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Tulsa Sales Tax Collections Decline

The City of Tulsa reports August sales tax collections from the Oklahoma Tax Commission dropped 10 percent than from last August and remain slightly lower than the budget estimate.The City received $16,641,187 in sales taxes, compared to $18,578,447 for the same period last year, showing a decrease of $1,937,259.That amount also is 1.76 percent below the budget estimate of $16,940,000.Use tax received this month, while lower than the same month last year, is slightly higher than the budget estimate. The distributions represent sales taxes collected from mid-July to mid-August and use taxes collected in August.First quarter year-to-date sales tax collections are $49,988,565, which is 9.02 percent below last year’s collections of $54,945,669 but only 0.77 percent below the budget estimate of $50,374,000.Use taxes, which businesses pay on purchases of equipment, totaled $1,522,836 for the period. That is a decline of 10.79 percent, or $184,220, compared to $1,707,056 during the same period in 2008. That amount, however, is 1.19 percent higher than the budget estimate of $1,505,000. For the year-to-date, $4,592,522 in use tax has been distributed to the city. That is a 6.49 percent decline from the $4,911,060 collected last year, but it is above the year-to-date budget estimate of $4,482,000.“Our revenue estimates are right on track, so further budget cuts will not be triggered at this point. We are monitoring the data closely,” said Mayor Kathy Taylor.